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Q and A: How should I charge for SEO services?

I’m very excited about finishing the SEO course today and getting my certificate! Thanks for a great course.

One thing I was hoping I’ll find in the bonus lesson and I didn’t, was some information on service pricing. I personally started providing web design services to my clients then wanted to add SEO to my services. How do you recommend I charge for this “extra” service?

Thanks,
Lamees

Dear Lamees

I’m so glad you enjoyed the course and are preparing to launch SEO services to your existing clients.

About Kalena Jordan

In my day job, I'm Director of Studies and tutor at the online training institution Search Engine College. In my spare time, I'm a search engine agony aunt and SEO to global clients. I've been marketing websites online since 1996 and blogging about search since 2002. To learn more, visit My Google+ Profile

Current demand for SEO consulting services is high – so you can charge premium rates if you are good. Beyond charging by the hour – you can also consider charging for results. For example, instead of charging $45 p/h – you could charge the customer $20p/h for your time – and $4 per week for each ranking placement above a threshold value you achieve. So if the customer is currently ranking at 200, and you tune them up to 15 , assuming a 40 hours work week (yeah right ) – you would earn 20*40 + 185 * 4 = 800 + 740 = $1540 ; Just an example – but you get the idea. Customer love the “pay for results” mentality. If you set your fee structure right – and you are good at what you do – you could make some good money If you want a good benchmarking tool – have a look at http://www.rankangel.com – allows you to graph results over time etc… and you can use this with your customer’s to show evidence of progress etc…

Hi Kalena, Thanks for posting my question and sharing your insight. I certainly found the links useful and interesting.
I also like James suggestion for charging based on results. Looks like it’ll take some trial and error till I figure out a pricing formula that works for me and my clients.